Keynote: Exercise and Appetite: causalities of the energy balance wars, Professor John Blundell

15:15

Parallel Sessions (see download document)

16:45

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Speakers and Facilitators

Dr Giles Yeo, University of Cambridge

Keynote SpeakerGiles Yeo is a Senior Research Associate and Director of Genomics and Transcriptomics at the University of Cambridge Metabolic Research Labs. He did his PhD in Cambridge with Sydney Brenner, and his subsequent post-doctoral training with Stephen O’Rahilly, when he was the first to report that mutations in the melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) and in the neurotrophic receptor TRKB resulted in severe human obesity. Giles is interested in understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying the central control of food intake and body-weight. The approaches he currently takes include identifying new players in the hypothalamic control of energy balance, as well as studying how genetic modifiers, such as FTO, might influence these pathways.

Professor Ian Macdonald, University of Nottingham

Keynote SpeakerProfessor of Metabolic Physiology, University of Nottingham and Head of the new School of Life Sciences in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Research interests are concerned with the functional consequences of metabolic and nutritional disturbances in health and disease, with specific interests in obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and exercise.

Early work involved assessing the physiological consequences (mainly on thermoregulation and BP regulation) of metabolic and nutritional disturbances such as starvation, hypoglycaemia and prolonged exercise. Recent work has focussed on the metabolic aspects of diabetes and obesity, including the effects of diet composition and weight loss, and the impact of dietary supplements on carbohydrate and lipid metabolism.

Two major areas of current interest relate to the use of MR imaging and spectroscopy for assessing alterations in metabolism and the influence of nutrients and metabolic disturbances on gene expression in adipose tissue and muscle. Current work in these areas relates to physical activity and inactivity (including immobilisation), obesity and diabetes.

In September 2013 he was elected as a Fellow of the International Union of Nutritional Sciences. He is currently joint Editor of the International Journal of Obesity, a member of the UK Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition, a Fellow of the Society of Biology, a Registered Nutritionist and an Honorary Fellow of the Association for Nutrition

Professor Julian Hamilton-Shield

Keynote SpeakerJulian Hamilton-Shield is a Professor of Diabetes and Metabolic Endocrinology at the University of Bristol (UK). He undertook his clinical, paediatric training in Bristol and the Hospitals for Sick Children, London. He has been an honorary consultant paediatrician at Bristol Royal Hospital for Children since 1997.

His main research interests encompass neonatal glucose metabolism, childhood obesity and its treatment, diabetes mellitus and the development of insulin resistance through childhood.

He is the theme lead in a National Institute for Health Research, Biomedical Research Unit in Nutrition, Diet and Lifestyle including Obesity within Bristol researching ‘Optimising nutrition in children with chronic disease to improve health outcomes’.

Professor John Blundell

Keynote SpeakerResearch Chair of PsychoBiology and the founder Director of the Institute of Psychological Sciences. Training in Neuroscience – Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, University of London (1970), Fellow of the British Psychological Society (FBPsS)

Member of Expert Group of UK government Department of Health (DoH) Social Marketing on Childhood Obesity (2004/5); Expert Group of UK government Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) Foresight Team on Tackling Obesities (2005/6). Chair – Expert Group, ILSI International Task Force on Appetite Regulation; Treasurer and Trustee of European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO) and Chair of Scientific Advisory Board; Scientific Governor of the British Nutrition Foundation (BNF); Expert consultant to the NDA Panel of European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). International Scientific Board of CYBERobN (Spain). Honorary Professor – University of Liverpool; University of Ghent (Belgium). Distinguished International Visiting Scholar – University of Rhode Island (2010); Winner of the British Nutrition Foundation Prize (2010).

John is one of the most highly cited investigators in the science of appetite regulation, energy balance and physical activity, with more than 20,000 total citations of his work. He has an h-index of 80, and over 20 years experience of in the management of interdisciplinary interventions involving simultaneous measurements in metabolism, physiology, energy balance, behaviour and psychology

Venue

University of Birmingham, Edgbaston Campus

The University of Birmingham is the original British red brick university located in the city of Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College.